A standard bullet comprises a generally cylindrical body usually comprised of metal, most often lead, disposed in a cartridge filled with explosive powder. When a firearm is discharged, the bullet is propelled through the barrel of the firearm which is internally threaded, (known as "rifling"), to impart an axial rotation to the bullet. The rotation helps maintain and stabilize the straight flight of the bullet through the air.
Upon impacting a target, the damage caused by the bullet is a function of many factors, including the velocity of a bullet, its size and shape, and certain other specialized features, with bullets having larger cross-sectional surface area causing the greater damage. Conversely, by virtue of their decreased resistance in passing through a target, bullets coated with low friction materials, such as Teflon, and those having narrow, profiles, are better able to penetrate straight through the target making a relatively small channel and causing minimal damage to the tissue surrounding the path of the bullet. Such bullets having relatively narrow profiles may penetrate completely through a target making a narrow hole therethrough, rather than causing more extensive damage by making a larger hole therethrough.
Some prior art bullets are specifically designed to cause excessive damage to a target by increasing the resistance through the target relative to their narrower counterparts. In one such bullet design, the front end of the bullet has a hollow front portion, called a "hollow point", rather than rounded or pointed profile, so that upon impact the bullet travels through the target with relatively greater resistance than a more aerodynamically designed bullet, thereby causing greater damage to the target. These bullets also tend to mushroom to a certain extent upon impacting a target thereby causing even greater damage thereto internally after entry into the target. Bullets with flat faces called wadcutters, have similiar, although less pronounced effects on their targets, as hollow point bullets.
One drawback to these altered bullets is that bullets having altered flat, or hollow front portions are less aerodynamically stable during flight than similar unaltered bullets, particularly those having narrow pointed profiles. The narrow profile bullets have less air resistance in flight than hollow point and flat head bullets, and consequently, travel straighter and farther than their less aerodynamically stable counterparts. On the other hand, as a result of the narrow-profile, these bullets tend to create relatively straight and narrow holes through a target thereby causing minimal damage thereto. Conversely, as mentioned above, these irregularly shaped, larger-cross-sectioned, and particularly hollow point and flat head bullets, cause relatively greater damage to a target.
Another problem with altered bullets is a result of the fact that the balance of the bullet is important to its trajectory. Typically, upon impact, a bullet comprised of soft lead substantially deforms into an irregular shape responsive to the impact. To prevent such deformation, prior art bullets are sometimes coated or covered with a hard metal jacket ("jacketed"), often made of copper or brass, to enable the bullet to maintain its original conformation upon impact, thereby facilitating a bullet's travel through a target intact, and minimizing such deformation. Prior art bullets are available in partially and fully jacketed versions. Partially jacketed versions are jacketed in the rear portion of the bullet so that, upon impact, the rear portion retains its integrity while the front portion deforms and expands into a mushroom shape. In this way the enlarged mushroom-shaped bullet causes greater damage to the target than a cylindrically-shaped bullet having a diameter of the same dimension as the bullet prior to impact. Another prior art bullet designed to cause increased damage to a target than a standard profile bullet, contains an explosive charge in the tip which explodes upon impact of the bullet on a target. In addition, no prior art bullet acts with a mechanical action utilizing the cooperation of multiple components to provide a bullet having expanding capability or to otherwise increase the destructive capacity thereof.
However, the prior art bullets are not capable of expanding specifically in a fan-like manner upon impacting a target thereby being propelled through the target, causing severe damage thereto. Moreover, none of the prior art bullets utilize, to any great degree, the benefit of the rotation of the bullet caused by the rifling in the barrel of the firearm to facilitate the bullets penetration into a target. In addition, no prior art bullets utilize the mechanical action resulting from the cooperation of multiple components to provide a bullet having expanding capability or to otherwise increase the destructive capacity thereof.